June 25, 2006

Colorforms for dinner

Shape is everything.

Think about it. Without the concept of shape, the whole premise behind Colorforms, my second-favorite childhood game, goes out the window. Colorforms' three basic shapes — circle, rectangle and triangle — allow you to create any object in the universe, if you add a bit of imagination.

The Japanese bento box is all about shape, too, as well as color and texture. The box itself is a rectangle; the norimaki roll, round; the gyoza dumpling, a half circle. Add a triangular piece of fish or meat, some rice and salad, and it's just like playing with Colorforms. And then you eat it.

The #1 Cooking Group created bento boxes in their final cooking group session of the season (except for Le Grand Aioli, our annual summer fete).

We began by steaming lots of medium-grain Nishiki rice: one cooker for the sushi rice, the other for the plain rice that forms the backbone of the bento.

We prepped ingredients for the potsticker dumplings, which we filled with a tofu-veggie mixture bound with peanut butter and soy sauce. Using small plastic dumpling molds, we crimped our potstickers, crisped the bottoms in a frying pan, and added chicken stock and mushroom-soaking liquid to steam them.

With the teriyaki salmon in the oven, ginger dressing made for the salad, rice bloop-blooping away in the cookers, and potstickers finishing on the stove, we got to work on the norimaki sushi rolls, finger bowls of vinegar-seasoned water and glasses of wine (for courage!) at the ready.

Rolling the sushi is easier than it looks. After a brief demo by me, everyone got the hang of it right away, and we filled roll after roll with Gold's wasabi-and hoisin-seasoned strips of red pepper, asparagus, avocado, cucumber and scallion.

Using some smoked salmon left behind by the Wednesday Lunch Group, and a bit of the remaining seasoned sushi rice, Cathy made a little treat for the cooks in the rectangular wooden sushi press: beautiful squares topped with a sliver of lemon!

With fifteen minutes to spare before our spouses arrived for dinner, we filled the bento boxes, adding a bit of pickled ginger here, some black sesame seeds there. And when we ran out of boxes, we used a couple of melamine trays, proving once again that the #1 Cooking Group knows how to think outside the box.

Combine all ingredients in a screw-top jar, and shake. Marinate salmon for 30 minutes, chicken for up to 4 hours.

Cook salmon (or chicken) in the marinade in a sauté pan. When the fish is almost, but not entirely, cooked through (about 5-6 minutes), remove from the pan and set aside. Raise heat to high, and reduce the remaining marinade by half to make a more robust sauce.

Comments

Everything looks fabulous. I especially liked the sushi pressed rice with the salmon. The sushi press presents endless possibilities. Being one that is not very fond of nori, I can see using the press for a variety of finger foods.

Pauline, I'm happy to lend the sushi press. It worked really well with the smoked salmon, but you could use any topping, like slices of smoked turkey or thin slices of cucumber or zucchini, cut lengthwise or shaved on a mandoline. Let me know what you invent!